WORDCAMP US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow. It’s hard to believe that it is already time for WordCamp US! We are SO EXCITED!

As you know, we love WordCamps AND we love Philly, so we have been counting down to this fantastic event…and it’s nearly here! WordCamp US is December 4th-6th, and a bunch of WDS-ers will be in attendance. Find them and SAY HELLO! One of our very own, the intrepid Rami Abraham, is speaking as well, and you won’t want to miss it.

Although I find it hard to believe that any of our regular readers are unfamiliar with WordCamp (especially at this point!), for those of you that are completely green: WordCamps are events held all over the world where WordPress nerds unite to share their skills, insights, and learn a whole lot from a bunch of other smarties.

As per usual, we’ve included the details of Rami’s session below, as well as some other excellent presentations that caught our eye. Here are a few of the things we’re stoked to see this coming weekend:

Friday, December 4th

2:30 PM – How to Build a Compelling WordPress Product or Service – Brian Krogsgard

As the editor of a WordPress news website geared toward industry professionals, Brian spends most of his days analyzing WordPress products and services. He sees hundreds of launches every year, and gets pitched to cover new offerings constantly. He also regularly communicates with successful WordPress business owners to discuss what is working for them and what isn’t. He will share what makes for a compelling WordPress product or service: from website design, to user experience, the human touch, code quality, and more. Attendees will receive actionable steps for improving their products, services, and positioning in the WordPress space.

BuddyPress is a powerful plugin that adds a social network to your site. But as users who haven’t used BuddyPress much or at all, we might not realize it’s power and flexiblity. This talk will introduce you to BuddyPress. Then it will show you how to start seeing the possiblities BuddyPress can offer and how to creatively intergrate it into sites you’re building for agencies, small businesses, enterprise clients, higher-education, and even your own personal projects. When we’re done, your mind will be filled with exciting new ideas of how to build better and cooler websites for your clients and yourself… all thanks to BuddyPress!

Freelancers, small and even established businesses often overlook the value of event marketing mostly because they are usually a significant investment that is difficult to measure. In this talk I’d like to share several tips that will help both individuals and businesses to create the ultimate connected brand experience by attending conferences and generate valuable business as a result. Attendees will leave the sessions with specific actionable items on how to prepare for a conference, what strategies to implement for the best results and how to take the most from the event after it’s over.

Saturday, December 5th

9:00 AM – WordPress: The Next Generation – A Look Into WordPress Sites 5, 20, and 50 Years into the Future – Rami Abraham

Today, developers are well into embracing WordPress to enable the next generation of applications: creating rich native applications, powering home automation devices, supplying data to video games, and powering the data behind 3D applications.

With very few exceptions, much of these applications are widely unknown to a site owner in 2015. Similar to how custom post type functionalities are now well-known among the masses, what does the world look like when clients begin demanding these new possibilities? When developers start building them?

What does a residential home powered by WordPress really look like?

How could the concept of a social network change in 50 years, and how would that change how people interact with BuddyPress?
How would the WordPress UI team address design and development for augmented-reality interfaces?

What does a conversation between a WordPress developer with 46 years experience and a developer born in 2040 sound like?

These and other questions are explored with completely dramatized videos and images of this future, as well as (hypothetical) code examples, along with contextual commentary from Rami Abraham.

Attendees of this session don’t require any programming experience at all. However, there are a few brief notes that would benefit from an attendee having intermediate to advanced WordPress development knowledge.

Communities—like the one we have in WordPress—don’t just happen overnight. For them to be successful, they take people to show up, contribute back, grow with it and most importantly to incorporate new people into the fold. It is ongoing, it requires attention and it needs people like you and me to speak up. A small fraction of people carry the weight of helping it thrive, but the great thing is that despite all that, we all benefit from the community no matter who contributes. In this talk I will cover some known, and unknown tips and tools for making the community work for you and your business, and also help to put back more into the community than what you take from it.

WordPress is one of the most, if not the most, recognized website platform available in the market. Dominating over 25% of the market, it’s no surprise that its the preferred technology by marketers, sales professionals, small and large business alike, and those intent in nefarious actions.

Its popularity is often attributed to its flexibility, usability and of-course, community. With all the positive though, there is and continues to be an overarching security shadow that gets introduced into every conversation.
In this presentation, we look to educate and bring awareness to the real challenges the platform faces when it comes to security. We will also dispel rumors and myths, while providing a realistic, objective, overview of the current state of security affairs in the WordPress ecosystem.

The web is a constantly evolving domain, making even the most skilled security professionals faint at the idea of staying ahead of the latest and emerging threats. We will provide perspective, and educate the masses around the things that really matter and the things being done to improve the online experience for millions.

Session descriptions pulled from the WordCamp US site, with some edits for clarity.

It is not possible for us to be more excited about this. IT’S NOT POSSIBLE!

We hope to see you all there! If you can’t attend (womp womp), but would like to live vicariously through the internet, you can follow @WordCampUS, keep tabs on the hashtag #WCUS, or do it the old fashioned way and get yourself a ticket to the live stream. SEE YOU IN PHILLY!

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